MARBIDCO: Financing Maryland’s Food and Fiber Future
A Source For Agricultural Business Development Financing Assistance
The Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO) provides Maryland agricultural and rural businesses with the supplemental resources they need to start and grow their enterprises.
MARBIDCO is a nimble quasi-governmental organization that is an instrumentality of the State of Maryland, with a mission to serve the State's commercial farming, forestry, and seafood industries.
MARBIDCO assists qualifying businesses in securing affordable capital and credit for equipment, commercial facilities, and real estate purchases, often partnering with commercial lenders and state and local economic development and land conservation organizations.
MARBIDCO is committed to supporting the sustainability of the state's agricultural, forestry, and seafood businesses, most of which are family-run enterprises, while at the same time helping to ensure the viability of the rural working landscape that Marylanders so greatly cherish. A safe and healthy local food supply, clean air and water, thriving rural communities, and productive pastoral scenic vistas are what we plan to help sustain for future generations.
What MARBIDCO Offers:
Low and moderate-cost loan programs for farmers, watermen, as well as aquaculture, seafood processing, and wood processing businesses
Partnership arrangements with commercial lenders to help maximize rural lending opportunities
Beginning Farmer land access financing leading to productive agricultural land being permanently preserved
Targeted specialty incentive grants for local farm food aggregation and certain farm and resource-based businesses
MARBIDCO staff can consult with individuals and businesses to determine which programs are the best fit.
Video by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/video/assorted-fruits-and-vegetables-8540479/
On September 1, 2025, the Maryland Wood Products Industry Equity Investment Program (WPIEI) will open.
MARBIDCO recognizes the importance of the forest products industry from economic, environmental, and consumer perspectives, and thus seeks to assist in growing a strong and diversified wood products industry in Maryland. MARBIDCO aims to assist Maryland’s forestry businesses with improving operations and efficiency, increasing productivity and employment opportunities, and supporting new market development.
By helping to sustain and grow a healthy forestry industry, investment now will yield substantial longer-term benefits for Marylanders. Recognizing this, the Governor and Maryland General Assembly authorized $125,000 in funding for FY 2026 for MARBIDCO to offer the Maryland Wood Products Industry Equity Incentive Program (WPIEI).
In FY 2026, MARBIDCO aims to incentivize one large-scale high-impact project focused on value-added production and job creation/expansion. A competitive review will involve a higher priority towards a project meeting these criteria.
Eligible applicants may apply for incentive grants for a wide range of equipment and capital asset purchases of specialized forestry and logging equipment and large-scale wood processing equipment. Eligible projects include tangible equipment purchases and facilities improvement costs.
Eligible applicants include primary or secondary wood products processors. Applicants can include sole proprietorships, partnerships, cooperatives, corporations, and LLCs. Grant funds and matching funds must be used for equipment and capital asset purchases that have a useful life of seven years or more. MARBIDCO seeks applications for projects or purchases that will improve operations, increase productivity and/or workforce expansion, support the production of value-added wood products, or aid in the pursuit of new markets. This should be evident in the project description and business plan. Special consideration will be given to projects that highlight the potential for job creation and the production of ‘value-added’ wood products for FY 2026. With limited grant funds, MARBIDCO will only be awarding one project a grant of $125.000.
Application deadline is November 14, 2025.
The Maryland Livestock Processing Equipment Grant Program will open on September 2, 2025.
MARBIDCO has established the Maryland Livestock Processing Equipment Grant Program to assist with the expansion of livestock processing capacity in Maryland. This program offers grants to eligible applicants to purchase livestock and meat processing equipment and/or upgrade facilities to help increase production in Maryland, with a particular focus on large animal and blue catfish processing. (Smaller-scale poultry processing projects may also be eligible.)
For the Maryland Livestock Processing Equipment Grant Program, MARBIDCO will contribute up to 50% towards the eligible costs, with a maximum grant award amount of $50,000 for USDA-inspected slaughter facility projects (including meat and blue catfish processing), and maximum grant award amount of $20,000 for other USDA-inspected facilities, secondary blue catfish processing for commercial distribution, custom-exempt processing, or mobile processing projects.
Application deadline is October 24, 2025.
One of our objectives is to foster emerging industries and assist new and beginning farmers in their business ventures.
For New Farmers
We have several programs to get you on track to purchase a farm no matter what size. The Next Gen and SANG programs assist you with a downpayment and can help preserve the working farmland in perpetuity. Click the button to learn more about education, training, business resources, and our many grant and loan programs tailored to young and beginning farmers. Call us to discuss your future at 410-267-6807.
Let’s get started today!
For most MARBIDCO programs, practical farm and/or business experience is required and may be supplemented by academic or hands-on training experience.
Our loan and grant programs require business plans and borrower financial information to be submitted. If you have some experience in commercial agriculture, forestry, or seafood, or are working with a mentor, you may qualify for one of our loan or grant programs.
In delivering our financing programs, we work cooperatively with commercial banks, Farm Credit Associations, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), as well as other federal, State, and local government agencies and land grant universities. Please contact us to find out which programs may be right for your business.
What People Are Saying About MARBDICO
“We were fortunate to receive a grant from MARBIDCO that truly transformed our business. With their support, we built a commercial kitchen on our farm, which allowed us to turn our homegrown herbs into a unique value-added product: Urban+Ade, an herb-infused lemonade. Thanks to this grant, we’ve been able to offer Urban+Ade in three versatile formats—by the cup, in fill-and-serve pouches, and unsweetened pouches—giving our farmers market customers more options and helping us expand into the online marketplace. This journey, made possible by MARBIDCO’s belief in our vision, has been a reminder of what’s possible when opportunity meets determination meets financial support. We’re incredibly grateful and inspired to continue growing and sharing something special with our community and beyond.”
“As a young farmer with no collateral or credit history to purchase such a big investment, it is hard to get started in the ag business. MARBIDCO and Horizon Farm Credit have allowed us to establish a future for our family business. Since purchasing our farm, we have been steadily improving our operation.”
– Ryan Rhodes, Poultry Farmer
Queen Anne’s County, MD